1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a power plant with a CHP (combined heat and power) system and more specifically it relates to a power plant CHP system with a distillation apparatus for providing a high efficiency electrical power plant with lower fuel usage and subsequently lower CO2 emission specie (a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion) thru the use of exhaust gas waste heat of a gas turbine driven electrical power plant for distillation processes replacing the need for electrical heating elements.
2. Description of Prior Art
It can be appreciated that electrical power generation plants with a CHP system have been in use for years. Typically, a power plant with CHP system comprise for a gas turbine engine or reciprocating internal combustion engine driving a synchronous or non synchronous electrical generator incorporating the use of the exhaust gas waste heat for additional energy needs to yield high thermal power plant efficiency usually exceeding 60% depending on the cycle, making use of the waste exhaust heat for hot water, hot air, refrigeration or steam to drive a steam turbine. These power plants use fuel such as oil, bio-oil, waste fuel, coal, propane gas, natural gas, gasoline, alcohol, nuclear, geothermal or solar sources for a power-grid or onsite main or emergency electrical power for home, industry or marine vessels; power plants use internal combustion engines typically reciprocating or turbine engines, converting fuel energy into rotational shaft energy and intern rotate a synchronous speed generator (microturbine non synchronous speed alternator) having a rotor with a stator incorporating windings (microturbine alternator rotors have permanent magnets with no windings) for electrical energy output. Typically power plants are not portable or are limited due to weight especially reciprocating engine type but on the other hand the turbine engine historically lends more to portability but are typically have a higher purchase cost. Power plants are traditionally systems with large generators and grid tied that operate at a constant synchronous speed and was the intent of the current microturbine (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,314,717, 6,605,928, and 5,497,615 to name a few) business having a smaller power plant (up to 15% efficiency having no heat exchanger and <28% with a heat exchanger) to be more portable and less costly but did not come to fruition of wide use, mostly not being competitive to the diesel reciprocating generator set $/Kw purchase cost even though the latter has emissions issues. Distillers used for desalination typically use resistive electrical heating elements of the vapor cycle; although some are efficient as in the desalination process or just generating clean water as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,856, the use of electrical resistive elements in heat the liquid to the vapor phase requires electricity from power plants (say stationary type) with efficiencies <40% and portable power plants <30%; if you use the turbine exhaust waste energy from the electrical power plant (preferably having low emission combustion to avoid any fouling of the heat exchanger gas side) for the vapor stage heating of the process fluid the related electrical power plant CHP overall efficiency, depending on the component efficiency of the distiller, could be above 60%.
The main problem with conventional distillers using resistive elements to heat the process liquids is the electrical energy use and subsequent $/Kw-hr costs; if the heat source from an electrical power plant gas turbine exhaust gas waste heat was incorporated, the related thermal efficiency of the power plant would increase thru this CHP (Combined Heat and Power) system. Reduced fuel usage yields less CO2 emission specie.
Another problem with conventional distillers, is in the usage with boat/marine applications especially associated with smaller vessels for desalination (need for onboard water) for high purity water, typically incorporate resistive heater elements requiring electricity generated from the main propulsion engine (typically piston internal combustion engines) and thus reducing the engines overall efficiency. If a gas turbine power plant (typically high air flow vs low air flow piston engines) were incorporated either as a main power plant or APU (auxiliary power unit) and the exhaust gas waste heat replaced the electrical resistive to heat the salt water in the distillation process, this CHP system would reduce fuel consumption and higher electrical power generation efficiency would be realized. Also, this CHP system would remove the need for onboard large clean water storage transport tanks (store H2O from land base facilities). Considering non grid tie electrical power generation and or as independent power and having a need to produce potable water, a microturbine/hybrid microturbine power plant incorporating the exhaust gas waste heat for distillation process would yield a portable high efficiency electrical means of a CHP system with a reduced cost to produce high quality H2O.
In these respects, the power plant CHP system with a distillation apparatus according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a high efficiency electrical power plant with lower fuel usage and lower CO2 emission specie (a by-product of fossil fuel combustion although to lesser factor is a contributors to the world environmental emissions concern), thru the incorporation of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system, using exhaust gas waste heat of a gas turbine power plant for distillation processes replacing the need for electrical resistive heating elements.